Tax Incentives

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TAX INCENTIVES - PAGE 4

A Chicago apparel company that considered moving its operations to North Carolina will instead stay in the city and expand its payroll because of a $6 million tax incentive package, city officials and the company owner said Thursday. The company, Alstyle Apparel, will move from a 66,000-square-foot factory at 3001 W. Cornelia Ave. to a 367,000-square-foot facility at 2500 W. Bradley Pl., allowing it to add more than 180 jobs in the next two to three years, city officials said. The $18 million relocation will be assisted with $6 million in city, county and state tax incentives, Mayor Richard Daley said.

A plan to finance a hotel with tax incentives appeared headed for the courtroom after talks Tuesday between Burr Ridge representatives and school officials failed to resolve a dispute. The Burr Ridge Village Board this fall approved a tax increment financing district for 85 acres along Interstate Highway 55 and County Line Road known as Corporate Park, over the objections of School Districts 107 and 204. School officials maintain that their districts would sacrifice too much tax revenue under the plan.

North Carolina Gov. James G. Martin acknowledged Thursday that the state is trying to woo Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s Merchandise Group away from Chicago, but said that no special tax incentives are being offered to the nation's largest retailer. Martin said two North Carolina cities, Raleigh and Charlotte, are vying for the 6,000 merchandising jobs Sears wants to relocate from Sears Tower to less expensive quarters in a "campus-like" office complex of 1 million to 1.5 million square feet.

Development of a controversial 215,000-square-foot Meijer superstore in Lisle will likely not happen without some type of financial boost from taxpayers, consultants said Wednesday at a special meeting. But first Meijer Inc. must convince the Lisle Joint Review Board that 67.5 acres of cornfields and wetlands within a largely residential area west of Benedictine University qualifies as a "blighted" area under the state Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act. The review board, made up of representatives from taxing districts that would be affected by the Meijer project, agreed to continue hashing out the definition of "blight" at another meeting, scheduled for 2 p.m. next Wednesday.

When a Hollywood production team began scouting locations for a film about poker star Phil Hellmuth, one of the first stops they made was to the land of Cheeseheads. Hellmuth, a 10-time world poker champion known equally for his success at the card tables and his mouthy arrogance, is a Madison native. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for three years and then dropped out to play poker full time. But where to film the story of Hellmuth's youth, and rise to success, has sparked a fight among state legislators.

The Regional Transportation Authority didn't mince words in its lawsuit accusing Kankakee and Channahon of helping businesses avoid sales taxes that are supposed to pay for public transit. The RTA says the two cities, both just outside the transit agency's service area, facilitate a "scheme" under which businesses set up "sham sales offices" to escape paying higher sales taxes in the Chicago metropolitan area. Mayor Rahm Emanuel was equally blunt about a similar suit filed by Chicago.

Office Depot, which had been seeking millions in tax incentives from Illinois and Florida, said Tuesday it has picked Boca Raton, Fla., for its new headquarters, a move that will cost hundreds of workers in Naperville their jobs. "I'm sorry that they are leaving," said Naperville Mayor George Pradel. "It's a sad time in Naperville today. " The company has roughly 1,600 employees in Naperville. Office Depot said some jobs would be relocated, but the company declined to say how many people it might move or when that might happen.

Sears Holdings Corp. has joined a growing list of companies threatening to move their headquarters out of Illinois, setting off a flurry of activity from government officials, including Gov. Pat Quinn, eager to keep thousands of corporate jobs in the state. The retail giant, which has called the Chicago area home since 1887, is in early talks with officials from several states to relocate its Hoffman Estates headquarters. The states include New Jersey, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia, according to a source familiar with the talks.

President Bush offered an economic lifeline to small business owners Monday, proposing a new round of tax breaks and incentives for the entrepreneurs he says are critical components to dampening the recession and stirring job growth in America. "Even though the economic news has been positive, in my judgment we're not out of the woods yet," Bush said. "We've got to keep working for policies in place that encourage more job creation." The president, who traveled to this St. Louis suburb to meet workers at a manufacturing company and raise money for a Republican Senate candidate, will unveil a plan Tuesday in Washington aimed at cutting bureaucracy for small business owners.

Lawson Products, a distributor of maintenance, repair and operations supplies, is receiving a $7.8 million tax incentives package to move its headquarters to Chicago. Lawson said it plans to relocate 400 employees in its Des Plaines headquarters to the Triangle Building on West Bryn Mawr, near O'Hare International Airport, in early summer 2012. Lawson will receive the tax credits, contingent on creating jobs over a 10-year period, Illinois' Economic Development for a Growing Economy program, said Wednesday.